Great article. I think some of this stems from people's desire to control everything in their world, including every aspect of their child's growth and development. I saw a similar thing when I was a labor and delivery nurse. People would come in with very elaborate, detailed birth plans for the "perfect" birth and when they got just a regular old birth complete with pain and things that didn't go according to plan they freaked out, sometimes even rejecting the baby. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water! They just couldn't handle the fact that they were not in control of the birth process and were sure that this had forever damaged their ability to bond with their babies. Ludicrous!

Excellent article! I need to send it to a friend who has become so OCD about her children and their 'safety'. She won't let them out of the house in fear of them being abducted, but will let them onto the internet without a second thought. I don't let my boys go out without supervision...they are 5, 7 and 8, but we live on a busy street without sidewalks. However, we monitor the internet constantly as our oldest son, 18, has a porn addiction that was starting to turn to child porn. We need to make sure we are taking care of the most important things and not over doing on things that hurt us.

I was a graco momma too. :) Seriously, today at Discovery Place in Charlotte (we took Marcy for a birthday treat) we watched one mom follow her kid around religously dousing him with antibacterial handwash. She was ridiculous. Even my children noticed her obsessive behavior.